CARDINAL CARLO MARIA MARTINI, S.J. (1927-2012)
From left, The cardinal with B16 in May 2005; on his 80th birthday in Jerusalem (Feb 2007); next 2 photos taken 2009-2010 after he retired to a Jesuit home in Gallarate, near Milan; last 3 photos taken 2011-2012.
Fr. Federico Lombardi dedicates his weekly editorial to his fellow Jesuit:
The life and legacy
of Cardinal Martini
Sept. 1, 2012
The death of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini is an event that stirs great emotion well beyond the confines even of the vast Archdiocese of Milan, which he governed for 22 years.
It concerns a bishop that, with his words, his many writings, his innovative pastoral initiatives, was able to effectively witness to and proclaim the faith to the people of our time; earning the esteem and respect of those both near and far; inspiring so many of his brother bishops throughout the world in the exercise of their ministry.
Cardinal Martini’s formation and personality were those of a Jesuit scholar of Sacred Scripture. The Word of God was the starting point and the foundation of his approach to every aspect of reality and all of his contributions.
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola were the matrix of his spirituality and spiritual pedagogy, of the continued engagement, at once direct and concrete, between the reading of the Word of God and life, of spiritual discernment and determinations in the light of the Gospel.
It was the courageous intuition of Pope John Paul II to put the spiritual and cultural wealth of the man who had been until then a scholar — the rector first of the Biblicum and then of the Gregorian University — in the service of the pastoral care of one of the largest dioceses in the world.
He had a distinctive style of governing. In his last little book—Il Vescovo (“The Bishop”) — Martini wrote: “Do not think the bishop is able to effectively guide the people entrusted to him with a multitude of regulations and decrees, with prohibitions and negative judgements. Focus instead on interior formation, on a taste for and fascination with Sacred Scripture; show the positive reasons for our actions, inspired by the Gospel. One will gain so much more than one would by a rigid observance of rules and regulations.”
It is a precious heritage, to reflect upon seriously when we seek the paths of the “new evangelisation.”
Giacomo Galeazzi has additional sidelights to the story in his Stampa/Insider article:
In death, Cardinal Martini's
'last lesson' to the world
addresses right-to-die issue
by Giacomo Galeazzi
August 31, 2012
Having learnt “with sadness” the news about Cardinal Martini’s death, which came “which he lived with a tranquil soul and with confident abandonment to the will of the Lord,” the Pope expressed his “profound share in [the] sorrow” for the death of “this dear brother who served the Gospel and the Church so generously.”
Benedict XVI will talk about the cardinal’s death at the earliest opportunity, probably at the Angelus on Sunday. The Pope kept track of the late cardinal’s deteriorating health condition right from the beginning and was constantly updated on Martini’s long suffering.
“We last met ten days ago. The deep emotion and interest triggered by the cardinal’s death stretch beyond the Catholic community and this is a sign that his mission of evangelisation was successful,” the Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi explained to Vatican Insider just a few hours after the death of his fellow Jesuit brother Carlo Maria Martini.
The cardinal’s will lie in state for the public from 12:00 onwards on Saturday in Milan Cathedral (the Duomo), until the funeral which will take place at 16:00.
“Now that we are really thinking of ways to announce the Gospel in today’s society, ahead of the Bishops’ Synod in October, "Martini’s example is especially valuable... His example contributes hugely to the essential themes of the new evangelisation. The cardinal was able to communicate not just with faithful but also with people who were far from the faith, bringing the message of the Gospel to everyone. The reflections he was able to develop appear extremely relevant to me. And the vast interest shown in the light of his death shows that his ministry stretched across many social and cultural strata.”
The cardinal’s embrace with Benedict XVI during the World Meeting of Families was the seal to his pastoral career, Fr. Lombardi thinks.
“The meeting in Milan two months ago was a highly significant moment and demonstrated continuity in the pastoral service of the archdiocese. Martini knew he had reached the end of the line and meeting the Pope, for him, was the greatest gift and gesture of recognition for the work he had done over the years in the Diocese of Milan,” Fr. Lombardi said.
[It must be noted that in all his public discourses in Milan last June. Benedict XVI did not fail to include Cardinal Martini in his salutations.]
The death of Cardinal Martini,
the conciliar bishop par excellence [I think if anyone should be called that, it would be Karol Wojtyla, who was not only both an actual bishop-Father of the Council, but was also probably the most active pastoral champion of the true spirit of Vatican II in the years immediately following the Council. Cardinal Martini did not become a bishop until 1980, when John Paul II made him one.] coincides with the beginning of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.
“He celebrated his last Mass yesterday morning,” said Fr. Cesare Bosatra, Superior of the Aloisianum in the northern Italian city of Gallarate, where the late cardinal had been residing over the past years.
“Martini had been sedated since yesterday and died peacefully in his sleep today, at 15:45.” Meanwhile, on Twitter, the #martini hashtag made it among the top ten most talked about topics.
But apart from the countless messages of condolence (he remained a great man up until the end, an example of reflection and of dialogue with both believers and non believers) posted, there were also a great deal of comments about the news that the cardinal had rejected futile medical care as was confirmed by his neurologist Gianni Pezzoli.
The cardinal had refused to have a nasogastric tube inserted into him to feed him. He had not been able to swallow for fifteen days and was only being kept alive through parenteral (intravenous) hydration. The neurologist’s announcement of this to the press seems like a last minute message in a country (Italy) where the most controversial part of the end-of-life law is precisely the obligation to feed a patient, as it is considered a crucial part of therapy.
[The obligation of others is one thing, but in end-of-life decisions, this obligation is applicable to patients who are already on life support, not to patients who freely choose, as apparently Cardinal Martini did, not to go into futile therapies that can only delay but not halt the natural inevitable progress of a terminal illness.]
The cardinal had already made his position on the matter clear back in 2007, in an article titled: “Welby and death and me”, written just a few weeks after the death of Piergiorgio Welby, a terminally ill Italian suffering from muscular dystrophy, who asked for his treatment to be suspended.
[Welby had been on a respirator for years, and at the time he was first given the therapy, he obviously did not refuse it, from which time his doctors had the obligation to keep him alive. That he decided years later to finally give it up meant that his doctors - Welby's family shared his final wish - were nonetheless under legal obligation to maintain his treatment. But these are the gray areas of the modern right-to-die legal issue, in the light of Catholic teaching, as is the final consideration cited below from Cardinal Martini.]
He reiterated his position in his last book entitled "Credere e conoscere" (“Believing and knowing”), published by Einaudi last March. In the book, he appeals to reason, even on the subject of euthanasia: “The new technologies which make increasingly efficient operations on the human body possible, require a dose of wisdom, to prevent prolonging treatments when they no longer benefit the patient.”
[I do not know what the pastoral practice is in this case - I don't believe there is a one-size-fits-all line - but when the patient is no longer able or competent enough to decide for himself, as Cardinal Martini had the final privilege of doing, surely the decision of the family - often dictated primarily by the astronomical cost of life support for the most medically hopeless cases, as much as by the desire to curtail a long agony for a loved one - must be taken into account. Cardinal Martini must be happy to know that even his death is provoking a fresh look at this contemporary situation that constitutes a Catholic dilemma.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/09/2012 20:11]